UNSW is first APAC uni to sign agreement with OpenAI
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The news: UNSW Sydney has announced a collaboration with OpenAI, maker of the AI chatbot ChatGPT, becoming the first university in the Asia-Pacific region to work with the US-based research organisation on 'ChatGPT Edu'.
The numbers: A 12-month targeted pilot is under way at UNSW to develop usages for ChatGPT Edu — a version of ChatGPT built for universities to deploy AI to students, faculty, researchers, and campus operations — involving 500 participants across the university. The pilot is focusing on enhancing productivity, curriculum development and student and teacher support.
Staff feedback will be gathered every three months to determine the usefulness and impact on productivity, learning and teaching. A controlled pilot with a selected cohort of students and their teaching staff is also planned for early 2025.
The context: UNSW said the collaboration with OpenAI will allow its researchers, educators and students to harness OpenAI’s AI tools on a secure platform. This means academics can protect their intellectual property whilst using OpenAI’s ChatGPT to complement and enhance their work.
UNSW joins the likes of Oxford, Columbia and Arizona State universities, as well as the London Business School and Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, to bring this technology to campus.
The agreement is aimed at giving UNSW staff and students more robust, secure, and bespoke technology compared to the standard free or 'plus' ChatGPT versions. It also means any prompts the UNSW community inputs into ChatGPT remain private and the data can’t be used for model training.
UNSW also has agreements with other AI platforms including Amazon Web Services, Microsoft and Adobe.
What they said: "This partnership with OpenAI represents a pivotal moment in our journey to integrate cutting-edge technology into the fabric of UNSW," said UNSW’s chief information officer Chrissy Burns.
"... This collaboration aligns seamlessly with UNSW’s strategy to embed AI across all disciplines, driving innovation, safeguarding intellectual property, and preparing our community to thrive as AI-natives in a rapidly evolving digital landscape," she said.
Leah Belsky, general manager of education at OpenAI said: "We’re delighted to collaborate with UNSW Sydney in this first-of-its-kind partnership in the Asia Pacific, providing researchers, educators, and students with secure, advanced AI tools to enhance learning, innovation, and productivity."
The source: UNSW media release
